Spirit, pilots reach deal to end five-day walkout

Spirit Airlines made a deal with its pilots on Wednesday that will end their five-day-old walkout, the union said.

The union and the airline were still working out the details of when pilots would return to flying. Pilots technically remain on strike until that is done, said Andy Nelson, the vice chairman of the council for the Spirit branch of the Air Line Pilots Association.

Spirit has canceled all flights through today.

Spirit pilots walked out Saturday morning in a pay dispute, saying they ought to make a wage comparable to their counterparts at other discount airlines like JetBlue Airways Corp. and Airtran Airways.

The strike grounded Spirit, which had said it intended to fly through any job action.

That didn’t happen, and many of its customers found themselves stranded with limited ability to use their tickets on other airlines.

European debt crisis leads to falling prices in U.S.

A silver lining of the European debt crisis is starting to emerge: falling prices in the United States.

Wholesale prices fell 0.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said Wednesday, and a report on inflation due today is expected to show a 0.2 percent decline in consumer prices. Both were driven by a dip in global prices for oil and other commodities caused by investor concern that, given the troubles in Greece and other European nations, the global recovery could slow.

In the short run, the biggest impact of the European problems affecting U.S. inflation is on commodity prices, and that impact has been almost instantaneous; the price of oil, for example, fell from a recent high of $86.84 in early April to $77.67 Wednesday.

Toyota considers startup of stalled Mississippi plant

Toyota is considering restarting its delayed Mississippi plant, according to sources familiar with the matter, as the auto market gradually recovers.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s auto plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, was initially planned to be completed by 2010, but the plans, first announced in 2007, were put off when the U.S. economy nose-dived in late 2008.

The Nikkei, Japan’s top business daily, reported Thursday that Toyota will also start up stalled plans for new plants in Brazil and China.”

NYSE briefly halts trading in Washington Post stock

The New York Stock Exchange halted trading in Washington Post Co. shares Wednesday under a new system of market curbs, after the stock doubled in price in apparently erroneous trades.

It was the first day that new “circuit breakers” put in place last week, designed to prevent a repeat of last month’s harrowing “flash crash,” took effect for all 500 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Washington Post shares jumped from around $450 to $919 at about 3:07 p.m. EDT, according to the NYSE. Because the increase exceeded 10 percent within a five-minute period, trading in the stock was halted for about five minutes, in line with the new rules.

The three trades at around $919, which were made on the NYSE Arca electronic exchange, were deemed erroneous and were canceled.

Site shows hefty pensions paid to N.Y. state retirees

A new website reveals the public pensions paid to New York state retirees, including the $261,037 paid annually to a former teacher. He is among the 1,378 retirees pulling down at least $100,000 a year.

Two-thirds of that group are retired police and firefighters.

The Empire Center for New York State Policy website went live Wednesday.